Re: OT: terms for people with different hair colours

ROGER MILLS wrote:
> Eric Christopherson wrote:
>>
>> On Oct 20, 2008, at 12:43 AM, Gary Shannon wrote:
>>
>>> Also (American English):
>> [...]
>>> red head - carrot top, copper top, ginger kid
>>
>> How common are the variants of 'ginger' in American English? I had
>> never heard them until South Park did an episode on ginger kids a few
>> years ago, and since then I've noticed they're used fairly commonly
>> in British comedy shows.
>
> I've heard "ginger" used as a color of cats, never of people.  I have a
> sneaky feeling it might be a Britishism (pejorative?) for "Irish", but
> could be wrong.
It is certainly a Britishism, but I've not in my 60+ years met it used
pejoratively for "Irish" - probably because in our little island we not
infrequently meet Irish people and have noticed that they come with a
variety of hair colors    :)

It's a traditional schoolkid's nickname for someone with red hair,
whatever their ethnicity. Once nicknames are given, they often stick
with the person well after they've left school.

One of my classmates at school many years ago was called "Rusty" because
his hair color was a reddish-brown.

--
Ray
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